Kicks, bats and geeze those suck!

 

The dugong is a sea faring mammal  that is pretty darn ugly.  In this picture for instance, it looks like a cross between a rock and a vacuum cleaner.

And now for a quick update on Battlestar Galactica.  The original 1978 series is complete.  Despite the sometimes simple story lines and the rather crude 70's production value, it was a good show.  Season one left off with what would have been a nice segue into season two...if there was a season two.  Instead it picked back up in 1980... and was terrible.  All kinds of weird stuff going on, like super powered boy scouts.  I stopped watching it.

Now, for studio news.
I got a new pair of kicks for the studio...do the kids still says "kicks"?
I finally wore a hole through the Croc type sandals that I had been wearing, so it was time to get a new pair of something to cover my feet. 

Originally I was looking at legitimate Crocs, but apparently they cost a little more than I was willing to spend.  I even looked for off-brand Crocs, but to no avail.  I finally settled on this pair of...whatever you want to call them.  Shoes would be good I guess.  The only problem was that they were not water proof.  Were I said.  I also purchased a can of spray on water-proofer and sprayed the curse word out of them.  Now I can saunter in and out of the studio without soiling my socks.  Huzzah.

I also recently got a nifty little plaster bat system.  What's that you say, a system of bats made of plaster?!  That's right friend!  I now have an entire system with which I can create bats made of plaster for mere pennies!
I got molds for a 13" flat bat and a 14" plate.  Here are a couple of the plate bats patiently drying.

And here they are after using them to throw a couple 10" lunch plates.

Roll out a slab, throw it on the plaster bat, rib it smooth and add/throw a coil on the bottom for a foot ring.  No struggle centering large amounts of clay; no trimming; these things save a vast amount of time.  The plates actually turned out a lot flatter than I thought they would.  I was able to put them back on the wheel right side up and pull the rim up a bit though.  They are not perfect.  It will just take a little practice figuring out how to get these things right. 

And here we have a bird-man-thing.

I am trying to make more of these things.  I have plans for them...maybe...maybe.  I think this guy still needs something, though.  I was toying around with wings, but I'm not sure if that is right.  Any suggestions?

And finally, I have been playing around with the rims on my ice bucket/wine cooler things.  Apparently I get bored rather easily, so I have decided to change things up a bit.

They have a wavy, undulating, asymmetrical thing going on.  They are loosely based on the work/techniques of Martha Grover.  I am not very happy with them so far.  The forms are weak to be sure, and the alteration needs a little more symmetry, but there is definitely potential. 

Ok, that is all for now.  Up next...dragons are real!

Bats, bags and seeing red...

 

I told my wife that 2013 was going to be the year of the beard.  She scoffed at the idea, citing the fact that thus far in my 30 years of life the extent of my facial hair growth has stopped at scraggly chin hairs.  We shall see...

Ok, I have a shit ton of pictures to put up, so words will be minimal.  First up, making a new bast system.  I never seem to have enough bats when making jars and such so I worked up this rig.  Now I will have a copious amount of cheap bats that will store easily and such.

Tools of the trade: 6.5 inch square cut out of one sheet of masonite, glued to a second sheet of masonite, 6.5 inch squares cut for bats.

Holes drilled for bat pins and notch cut for easy removal of bats.

Edges of bat trimmed down to fit inside splash pan.

New bat system on the wheel with bat in place.

In use.

Jar and lid successfully thrown on new bats and taking up very little space.

I think I may need to put a couple coats of shellac on everything to keep it from warping, but all in all I think it will work quite well.

Last week I went up to Krueger Pottery to grab some supplies I desperately needed to finish up some custom orders and such.  I got a bunch of glaze/slip materials, mostly in 50lb bags as they are much cheaper that way.  The only problem now is that I am not sure where I am going to store everything.  Oh well, small problems.

I also got a Talisman hand sieve to work up my slips and glazes.  I had been having a slight problem with clumps and bits of muck in some of the slips. 

The sieve works fine, but it is a bit smaller than I expected.  The description said it would fit on a "normal size" bucket, which I naturally assume means a 5 gallon bucket, but not so...falls right in.  I guess I will have to make an adapter ring so the sieve can sit on the buckets without having to muck about with it.

I also got a couple bags of plaster so I can finally finish up my reclaim bin.  Now I can recycle the many many pounds of slop clay that have been sitting around the studio.

It does, however, weight just slightly less than an elephant, so I will have to find a good, mostly permanent place for it in the studio.

Yesterday I loaded and fired a glaze load, which is currently cooling.  It is probably cool enough to take a peek now, but I am going to wait a little while yet.  Pictures of finished work next post.  For now here are some pictures pre-firing.

Bisque-ware pre-glazing.

Figures for surprise mugs.  Freaking great and much fun to make.

At ye olde pottery shop I also picked up a underglaze pencil to play around with.  I have tried underglaze sticks before with not very good results.  They were difficult to sharpen and almost impossible to get any detail with.  This new one, though, is cased in wood making it very easy to sharpen.  It also seems to be a bit harder than the last ones I tried, so it holds a tip longer and gets better detail.  My only complaint so far is that they smudge a bit, so I have to be pretty careful while working on pieces.  This, of course, is a pretty minor problem and should be an easy fix.

Underglaze pencil experiments.

I really enjoyed drawing on the pots and was very happy with how the illustrations came out.  We will see how they look after being glazed and fired.

And last but not least, a chance to Philbeck it up.

I got a bucket of terra cotta clay from who knows where and it has been sitting around for quite a while.  The other day I finally wedged it up and ended up with about 35 pounds or so of nice red clay.  Not enough to do much with, but plenty to play around with.

Up next...yoga?